1. General Information

1.1. Official program

The forty‐sixth special period of sessions of the General Assembly will be held on September 19, 2014, in Guatemala City, Guatemala. The sessions will take place in the Camino Real Hotel, located at Calle Camino Real 0-20, Guatemala City, Guatemala.

The Official Program of activities of the General Assembly will be available on the OAS Web page: www.oas.org (click on "General Assembly") or directly at http://www.oas.org/en/46sga/. Furthermore, the government of Guatemala has an official Web page http://www.46agexoea.minex.gob.gt/

1.2 Central Theme of the General Assembly

Read a press release about it here:  http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-285/14

1.3. Languages and work documents

The official languages for the work of the General Assembly are: Spanish, French, English and Portuguese.

The work sessions of the General Assembly will offer interpreting services in these languages. Furthermore, sound distribution of the inaugural and plenary sessions of the General Assembly will be made in the above‐mentioned languages.

Official documents in the four official languages of the General Assembly will be available on the OAS General Assembly Webpage, and hardcopies will be made available at the International Press Center upon request.

Journalists are advised to bring laptops and earphones should they wish to hear audio of General Assembly meetings in one of the other official languages of the OAS by accessing the live Webcast. Handheld translation audio devices will not be made available to the media.

1.4. Headquarters of the General Assembly

The 46th Special General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) will take place on September 19, 2014, at the Camino Real Hotel, located at Calle Camino Real 0-20, Guatemala City, Guatemala.

1.5. Inauguration

TBA

1.6. OAS Member States

Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Barbados Belize Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba* Dominica Dominican Republic

Ecuador El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Suriname The Bahamas (Commonwealth of) Trinidad and Tobago United States of America Uruguay Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

* On June 3, 2009, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Americas adopted resolution GA/RES. 2438 (XXXIX‐O/09), which resolves that the Resolution from 1962 through which the Government of Cuba was excluded from participating in the inter‐American system is without effect in the Organization of American States (OAS). The 2009 resolution declares that the participation of the Republic of Cuba in the OAS will be the result of a process of dialogue to begin at the request of the Government of the Republic of Cuba and in conformity with the practices, goals, and principles of the OAS.

1.7. Events parallel to the General Assembly

2. Press accreditation and information prior to the event

2.1. Accreditation

Requests for accreditation will be accepted from August 25th until September 12th. To receive accreditation, the applicant must fill out a form found on the webpage of the OAS (http://www.cvent.com/d/w4qrbq?lang=en). Once the required information is received and processed, the applicant will receive an email concerning acceptance and approval of accreditation.

2.2. Requirements

Requests for accreditation must be made individually, only online and must be made through the OAS General Secretariat.

Each request must include a digitalized note from the director of the media company requesting accreditation with a size no greater than 1 Mb, and it must indicate the name of the press official to be accredited.

Furthermore, the applicant must include a recent color photograph in JPEG format. Maximum size: approximately 250 Kb.

Resolution: 128 pixels length and 100 pixels width.

All media representatives are requested to provide all the information indicated on the form in order to obtain their credentials.

2.3. Picking up your credentials

OAS issued credentials may be picked up at the Hotel Camino Real beginning September 17, from 9:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 18:00 local time, by presenting the original letter from the requesting media organization and an official identification document (passport or identity card). The deadline for picking up credentials is September 19 at 12:00.

In order to pass through security controls and pick up credentials, you must present the email confirmation of your accreditation and your media identification.

For security reasons and to control access to meetings of the General Assembly, members of the press, in addition to presenting their OAS issued press credentials for the General Assembly, must present their own identification card issued by the media organization they represent. They must visibly display these two documents (media identification and OAS credentials) on their persons in order to obtain access to the meetings and events to which they have been invited.

2.4. Requirements for entering and leaving the country

Citizens of some countries of the hemisphere do not need visas to enter Guatemala. If you require a visa, the Government of Guatemala recommends applying in the nearest Guatemalan embassy, to avoid delays at the airport upon arrival in the country.

2.5. Bringing equipment into the country

There are no special requirements for bringing equipment into the country, aside from the declaration of such equipment upon arrival in Guatemala.

2.6. Security and technical inspection

For security reasons, press equipment will be inspected before coverage of the various meetings, which is why we request that you arrive at least one hour in advance.

Journalists must restrict their movement to press‐authorized areas, except when appropriate times are set up for photographs and video with the assistance of personnel from the OAS Press Department or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala.

2.7. Press conferences

• All press conferences held during the General Assembly will take place in a room designated for the purpose.
• To be confirmed Dates, times and location of Opening Press Conference
• To be confirmed date, time and location of press conference with OAS Secretary General, Assistant Secretary General, and Foreign Minister of Guatemala
• Press conferences will have interpretation in Spanish and English.
• At the end of the press conference, video, audio, photographs and press releases will be made available.

2.8 Advisories and Press Communications

All official documents, advisories, press releases, photo galleries and announcements will be published on the official website of the General Assembly (www.oas.org/en/46sga) and sent to the media representatives to the email address given on the press credential application.  If you would like to receive the communications at some other email address, please write to [email protected].

To receive updates on events, announcements, photographs and press releases from the General Assembly, follow @OASofficial on Twitter and/or #OEA_46SGA and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OASofficial.

3. Areas and services for the media

3.1. International Media Center (IMC)

Media representatives with General Assembly credentials will have access to an International Media Center, equipped to provide them the resources needed to conduct their work. The Center, located in the Hotel Camino Real, will be open beginning on Thursday September 18th until Friday September 19, from 07:00 ‐ 23:00 (local time).

This center will offer the following services:

• Wireless connection for portable computers
• 10 work spaces
• 10 computers with Internet
• 1 interview room
• 1 area for press conferences
• Room for editing and copying video material
• Closed circuit television to monitor the transmission.
• Access to satellite transmission Data and Coordinates yet to be received.
• Electricity voltage in Guatemala: 120 volts AC, 60 Hz.
• The radio and television transmission center will be equipped with:
  Pending information
• The daily list of activities, press releases and other information will be found in electronic format at the OAS/GA at www.oas.org/en/46sga.
• Media representatives will be offered light refreshments during the course of the work day.

3.2. Internet

The OAS, through its webpage (www.oas.org) and the official webpage of the General Assembly
(www.oas.org/en/46sga), will provide live webcast services of the meetings of the Foreign Ministers, the Opening Ceremony, the Plenary Sessions and the Press Conferences in the four official languages of the OAS. The videos will be available on the webpage http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/videos.asp

Plenary Sessions and Press Conferences

If you wish to link the webcast to your website, please send an email to: [email protected] and/or contact Ernesto Cossich ([email protected]). Radio and television stations that wish to air the webcast signal are authorized to do so.

The OAS, at http://www.flickr.com/photos/oasoea/, will have galleries of high‐resolution photographs from the General Assembly that you may publish with due credit. Similarly, official documents, draft resolutions, reports, speeches, press releases and other documents will become immediately available on the Assembly’s Web page.

3.3. Photographers and cameramen/women

Photographers and cameramen/women will be allowed to take images of particular events to be announced in due time. Among them are the following:

• Inaugural press conference
• Inaugural ceremony
• First plenary session of the General Assembly
• Closing ceremony
• Closing ceremony press conference

3.4 Press “pools”

If necessary, press "pools" are groups of limited size of media representatives (photographers and cameramen) who will be granted access to those events in which space is limited in order to capture images. The makeup of these “pools” will be announced in due time.

3.5 Bilateral meetings

Image capturing sessions will be held for bilateral meetings between Member State delegations and/or Observer countries that are open to members of the press. Media representatives covering these meetings will be requested to meet at the International Media Center, where personnel from the OAS Press and Communications Department or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala will accompany them to the meeting room. A schedule of bilateral meetings open to the media will be published daily.

3.6 Official photograph

The official photograph will be taken in the entrance of the Camino Real Hotel, headquarters of the Assembly.

3.7 Official radio and TV signal

Official TV Signal Contact: Awaiting information from host country

Agenda to be confirmed.

.

3.8. Satellite signal

Pending information from host country

Technical Data	Values
SATELLITE:	IS-805 @ 55.5°
TRANSPONDER:	23 / 23 C-BAND
FREQUENCY U/L:	6,148.5 MHz / VERTICAL
FREQUENCY D/L:	3,923.5 MHz / HORIZONTAL
MODULATION:	DVB - S2 8PSK
BAND WIDTH:	3 MHz
SYMBOL RATE:	2.222 MS / S
FEC:	3 / 4
VIDEO FORMAT:	525 NTSC
ENCODING:	MPEG-4 SD 4:2:0
ASPECT RATIO:	4:3
SATELLITE CENTER:	(502) 2410-3123 & (502) 2410-3125 GUATEMALA

Satellite Services:

Pending information
Television Set for interviews and audio and video recordings.

Activities that will be broadcast via satellite and via webcast through the sites http://www.oas.org/en/46sga/ and  http://www.46agexoea.minex.gob.gt/ are:
Pending information from host country.

CONTACTS:

Pending information from host country.

More information »

Activities »